Keeping away fans back in the stadium at the end of Boro’s incendiary game against Sheffield United “could have caused more trouble”, according to a top cop.

Violence erupted after the Riverside opener on Saturday evening, with around 200 fans involved in disorder which saw a police officer hospitalised and a 10-year-old boy injured.

Many supporters have questioned why enraged Sheffield United fans weren’t held in the away end after the final whistle, to allow time for Boro fans to dissipate outside the stadium.

But Assistant Chief Constable Jason Harwin said: “When planning for games we do sometimes consider holding fans back, but we must alert them beforehand.

“Doing so at such short notice could have caused more trouble, it would not have been effective.”

A disturbance after the Middlesbrough FC v Sheffield United match at the Riverside stadium, Middlesbrough (Image: Evening Gazette)

ACC Harwin said the flashpoint that sparked violence came when Sheffield United thought they’d scored an injury time equaliser - only for it to be chalked off for offside, infuriating Blades fans.

“It was a very difficult situation that we faced, in that the time of disturbance in the ground came very close to the final whistle. We had staff inside the ground, already migrating outside to deal with fans leaving,” explained ACC Harwin, who said some officers then had to come back into the stadium to deal with a pitch invasion, missiles being thrown and away fans trying to climb into the Boro end .

“The fans were boisterous but there had been no trouble up to that point.”

ACC Harwin said that the match had been classed as a ‘high risk’ fixture as Sheffield United are relatively close geographically compared to other league teams, and were expected to bring a number of fans. However there was no prior intelligence to suggest widespread violence.

The away concourse inside the stadium was smashed up, while tensions erupted in the stadium car park with around 200 involved in fighting - with “fans from both sides” seen throwing missiles, injuring a 10-year-old boy and other children and leaving many supporters “traumatised”.

But Saturday evening’s trouble will not see a dramatic change of approach in the way future games are policed, with Burton Albion set to travel to the Riverside on Tuesday.

“What happened on Saturday was a rarity. We must make sure we show it will not be tolerated in the future,” continued ACC Harwin.

“We have planning meetings before every game and the number of staff we have is in line with the intelligence we have, and we will not change that.

“We’ve had a debrief of the way the game was policed with the club and we’ll look again at how we police the exits after a game.”

Read More

Six people were arrested after Saturday’s match, and a 47-year-old man will appear in court on September 8 charged with a public order offence.

Two men, aged 20 and 58, were cautioned for invading the pitch, a 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possession of a class A drug and was released with no further police action.

And two men, 35 and 52, were arrested on suspicion of affray and released under investigation.

Middlesbrough Football Club issued a statement saying “there is absolutely no place” in football for hooliganism, and vowed to bring those responsible for violence to justice. Sheffield United pledged to identify the troublemakers.

Among those injured was an on duty policeman, who was hospitalised on Saturday night.

A pitch invader is tackled by security at Middlesbrough's match against Sheffield United (Image: Evening Gazette)

“He was punched to the face, he’s a big lad and he was punched to the floor,” said ACC Harwin.

“But he’s back at work today. He’s got no fractures or broken bones, he’ll be OK.”

Investigators have spent the weekend wading through CCTV footage of the trouble, while fan footage showed yobs storming the Riverside coach park gate.